Two weeks ago I DNF'd a 300; after 93km, I had no energy and my legs were cramping up. We had done only 800m out of almost 3000m of climbing, and the thought of another 2200m of climbing and 210km of pedalling on dead, cramping legs depressed me, so I turned around and went back to the start via a shortcut, totalling 165km for the day.
This past Saturday, I completed a 200, the last ride of the season for our club. There were only two of us riding, and we agreed to stick together. My riding buddy has always been a stronger, faster rider than me, but he's been having some physical health issues this year, so we took it pretty slow, finishing in 10:55, my slowest time by far. It was a good experiment for me. I am normally very destination oriented, trying to keep my breaks short, keep my speed up, and finish in a decent time. I'm not fast; 9 hours is about the best I can do for 200k. But I found the slow pace and long breaks to be a little frustrating. It was no more enjoyable to take it slow than to just keep moving.
To be honest, I think I have come to realize that I maybe don't really like randonneuring after all. I like the idea of it, and there's that sense of accomplishment after finishing a long ride, but I tend to give up too easily when the going gets tough, and even on the easier routes, I spend a lot of time wondering what the h3ll I'm doing, riding circles in the middle of nowhere, usually by myself. Maybe with good scenery and good company, it would feel better. This last 200 in particular had 2 X 20km of nice riding on rolling hills through a national park with beautiful fall foliage bordering the roadway, and 172km of bald prairie. On average, pretty dull scenery-wise. I dunno. Maybe randonnesia will kick in before next spring.
Anyway, this dude is part of a herd of bison that is part of an effort to repopulate bison herds all over the world. I stopped to say hello.
